The Impact of Personal Tax Reliefs on Income Tax Liabilities of Employees in Ghana: A Study of University of Cape Coast Employees
Abstract
This study was undertaken purposefully to establish whether personal tax reliefs are attractive in Ghana in terms of its ability to significantly reduce taxpayers’ income tax liabilities and also to identify challenges associated with the administration of the tax reliefs in Ghana. The study adopted the descriptive quantitative approach to research and employed questionnaires as the main data collection instrument. 132 questionnaires were administered online to employees of University of Cape Coast through their institutional email addresses. 119 responses were obtained representing 90.15% response rate. The study employed stratified sampling method followed by a simple random technique in selecting respondents into the various strata. The findings revealed that tax reliefs are not attractive; most taxpayers’ tax liabilities are reduced between 2 to 4% as a result of the reliefs. The study further showed that though there is high level of tax reliefs awareness among taxpayers, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) did not contribute much to the awareness creation: employers did the magic. Delays in getting the reliefs approved and too much paper works were also established as the main challenges associated with tax reliefs administration. The study recommends GRA to ensure publicity on tax reliefs through provision of seminars and workshops to educate employees and employers concerning filing procedures, how to appropriately fill the relevant forms as well as appropriate documentations required to support tax reliefs applications. It is also recommended to GRA to consider online application system to ease the challenges associated with manual application. Lastly, the government is encouraged to increase the amounts associated with various tax reliefs in order to make them attractive for utilization.
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References
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